What can you do to a room you can't do anything to?

[kiewiet]

I'll swap your beige walls for my green ones any day! Are landlords colorblind?
That said, I know how depressing it gets to have bland walls.
How long do you intend to stay there? That may affect the amount of $$$ you want to spend.
If you can, decide where your mirrors will go and get them up - not only are they a great way to reflect light but it will also feel more like "your space". (also mirrors leaning against a wall can easily break and picking shards of glass out of carpet is no fun, and takes ages ) Also re-arranging your furniture may make a big difference.

Adding color in the knicknacks or soft furnishings also works especially well against a boring wall color. Many agents advise people to paint their houses beige before selling as it is a softer colour than white and you can add almost any other colour in furnishings and still have it look OK.
You can also get cheap blank canvasses at many dollar store and it could be a cheap easy way to personalise things, especialy if you and a friend have a paint party

[RamenQueen]

I move in to my new place  Aug 1st. My landlord will let us paint our bedrooms any color we want ( its his niche) ***don't hate me ***But since my comforter , blanket chest , and night stand are all snow dripping white and my accessories are Vibrant Mexican-blanket style bright colors ( lamps vases , an actual mex blanket on the foot of my bed and paper cut outs on the wall) I prefered our off white paint . ( BTW if you need an apartment in Huntington WV and want to paint your bedroom , hit me up I'll pass on his name lol)

That being said we cannot paint anywhere else. I live with a male roommate who has asked nicely that I do not use pink, florals or stuffed animals in the decor of our shared bath, kitchen and Living room. I think I am going to use the above starch/fabric idea for our long hall way/stairwell to add some pizzaz.
Thanks for the info !

[suzyscissors]

If you do end up trying the starch and fabric, let us know how it works for you and maybe post some pics!!

[happyfrog]

i second the suggestion of spray starch and fabric.  it works great to affix to walls like wallpaper.  just don't have little kids around til it's dry.  or it'll be smeary - i did it to windows actually to make their bedrooms darker.

and it peels off really easily and then you can wipe down the walls (or not, lol depending on  your mood)

simply launder the fabric afterwards and it'll be ready for your next project.

[happyfrog]

oh yeah and i forgot to mention that spray starch and tissue paper - the colored stuff - looks AWESOME on walls and windows!  we did that first before we did the fabric  - the kids peeled off the tissue paper too fast, lol so we redid it with fabric. ..

[kellianneeee]

I'm just now seeing all these responses, and they're all great ideas. But my dad and I have since moved back into our house. I never ended up doing anything. We had gotten a new landlord and he expected us to pay him $1000 as a security deposit. It didn't happen. And he wanted us to get the carpets professionally cleaned when we left. That didn't happen either. But now that we're back in our house again I'm trying to redo my room to suit me. Maybe I'll use some of these ideas.

[Crying Goddess]

I happened to be looking at the same thing. (no painting at the new place) and I found this great how-to from eHow. You use sheets and liquid starch and it apparently comes right off.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5044689_use-starch-apply-fabric-wall.html

[Alexus1325]

Just thought I'd mention that here in Ontario, you can paint whether your landlord likes it or not AND you can even give him/her a copy of the receipt for reimbursement because it counts as an improvement to the rental unit. The only catch is it must be a "neutral" shade that will not be necessary to paint over for the next tenant. For example, golden wheat = ok, hot pink = not ok.

[AhuraFarouk]

One of my friend has decorated his walls with photo frames which come up with different shapes and sizes.

And for other walls he has removable wall paper and mirror stickers too.. You can have both or any combination.

[eiyela]

Glad you found a more customisable place to live. It's hard not to redecorate once you start crafting. 

I saw this interior decorating show a while ago. It's in Swedish unfortunately, but they were dealing with a similar problem. They solved it by simply building a false wall in front of the real ones! It looked beautiful, completely part of the room. There was a skylight in the place as well, really tall and white walls, so they stuck some coloured plastic onto the skylight and a couple of windows to reflect on the walls like movable wall art. I think they also made a standalone bookcase to fit into one of the walls.

Last time I lived in an apartment wit ha roommate we weren't even allowed to use tacks on the walls (I know, right? ). Our solution was a sort of chicken-wire frame on one of the walls for our pictures and things. Plus bed frames, giant bookcase, all that.